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Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Five killed in Nanded Express accident near Anantapur

The mangled remains of a coach of the Bangalore-Nanded Express which rammed into a lorry in Anatapur district on Monday morning. Six, including a Karnataka MLA, died in the accident.

Special ArrangementThe Bangalore-Nanded Express collided with a lorry early Monday morning resulting in derailment of four coaches.

One of the deceased is an MLA from Karnataka who was travelling to his constituency from Bengaluru.

Five people died in a freak accident near Madakasira Railway Gate 14 k.m. from Penugonda in the district when a truck carrying a granite boulder rammed into the Nanded bound Bangalore-Nanded express train at around 2:30 AM today.

Speaking to The Hindu, the Anantapur superintendent of Police, S.V. Rajasekhar Babu, who along with the district collector Kona Sasidhar reached the accident spot, said that the brakes of the truck carrying the granite boulder, weighing several tonnes, had failed leading it to ram into the S1 coach of the Bangalore - Nanded express.

While five including the truck's cleaner, who is yet to be identified, have been pronounced dead by doctors at the Hindupur government general hospital, more than 30, mostly from the S1 coach were injured. Five out of them belonging to the same coach were learnt to have sustained severe injuries and have since been sent to Bengaluru for better treatment.

One of deceased have been identified as Venkatesh Naik, the legislator from Devadurga Assembly constituency of Raichur district in Karnataka, who was travelling to his constituency from Bengaluru.

The other deceased identified, as of now, are Sayyad Ahmed, a railway technician from Karnataka; Pulla Rao, a farmer from Richard district of Karnataka; VST Raju, general manager of a private company in Bengaluru. One more deceased remains to be conclusively identified, said the railway police, speaking toThe Hindu.

“The boulder got deposited onto the S1 coach which has been the most damaged and accounted for all deaths until now except one, the truck's cleaner,” said Mr Rajasekhar Babu.

The lorry broke the closed gate at a manned level crossing between Rengapalli and Penukonda station in Anantapur district and rammed into the Banglore-Nanded Express (Train no: 16594) due to negligence of the lorry driver. It resulted in derailment of four coaches, said Railway Ministry spokesperson.

Of the injured those brought to Bengaluru include Suresh, a contract employee who distributes bedrolls, who has two fractures in his leg. Mr. Jagmohan Gupta and wife who sustained minor injuries and were treated. "Track restoration work has already started. We will post updates once it is completed," said Sanjiv Agarwal, Divisional Railway Manager, South Western Railway.

Meanwhile, several trains - Rajdhani express, Bidar express and Sholapur express - have been stopped in their tracks and various places in the district while several others are being diverted through Pakala line from Guntakal junction.

The railway authorities have opened up helpline numbers - 08555-220249, 08559-222555 and 08554-236444 - even as they said that more than 20 of the injured were declared to be out of danger by doctors at Hindupur. The condition of five more is learnt to be stable.